8 Worst Exercises For Muscle Building

Are the most popular lifts the best builders? Absolutely not! Find out why exercises like squats, bench press and even rows are not good choices when it comes to packing on lean mass.

It is common knowledge that the biggest bodybuilders don't always make the best trainers. After all, they are the genetic elite and didn't have to work very hard to build the muscle they have.

The same can be said for muscle building exercises. Just because a movement is popular doesn't mean it's the best lift for packing on pounds of beef.

The following 8 exercises might be popular, but are actually the 8 worst exercises for long term muscle building, health and fitness. Let's take a look at why.

1. Worst Exercise - The Bench Press

The bench press is like the atomic bomb of the muscle building world. It has destroyed an immeasurable number of shoulder girdles. Even when using perfect form, you are compromising your elbows, wrists and rotator cuffs.

Avoid the bench press at all costs.

2. Worst Exercise - Bicept Curls

Big bicepts are built with rows and pull ups, period, end of story. Anyone that tells you differently is living in a bro fantasy land.

All forms of bicepts curls are good for one thing, and one thing only - giving you elbow tendonitis.

3. Worst Exercise - Squats

Everyone knows that squats destroy the knees. The further down you squat, the more risk you incur. The only sane alternative is to use half-squats or quarter-squats, both of which require a ridiculous amount of weight. This makes them a dangerous choice as well.

4. Worst Exercise - Deadlifts

This choice is a no brainer. Just as squats are bad for the knees, deadlifts are twice as bad for your lower back. Heavy deadlifts are rarely safe, except for the very small percentage of lifters born with a Herculean-strong posterior chain.

Strongman Jón Páll Sigmarsson once said: "There is no reason to be alive if you can't do the deadlift." A more truthful quote would have been: "There is no intelligent reason to do the deadlift." If you keep deadlifting you'll end up hunched over, walking with a cane.

5. Worst Exercise - Overhead Press

Shoulder work is...well...idiotic. The human shoulder girdle is as fragile as glass. We are not designed as human beings to press heavy objects over our heads.

Unless you desire several shoulder surgeries before the age of 50, stick with side and rear lateral raises.

6. Worst Exercise - Bent Over Rows

Let's see, where do we start with this movement? Does bending over at the waist and lifting a heavy barbell sound like a sane, back-friendly choice to you? Absolutely not. Save your lower back and use machine rows and lat pull downs instead.

7. Worst Exercise - Dumbbell Flyes

Just like the bench press, the dumbbell flye places your shoulders in a precarious position. Spend a number of years performing dumbbell flyes and you are sure to pick up a shoulder impingement or two.

8. Worst Exercise - Any Abdominal Movement

And we stress - ALLabdominal exercises are inherently dangerous. ALL OF THEM. Abdominal work and lower back work requires training balance. Because of this even a minimal amount of lower back work is dangerous, not to mention bad for your spinal column. For this reason all abdominal work should be avoided as well.

Even the most trivial amount of abdominal work creates a muscular imbalance in the core, weakening the lower back and increasing incidences of spine-related issues

Conclusion - Which Exercises Are Best?

Stick with machine exercises. They provide the most overall stability, increasing rewards while reducing risk of injury. Avoid barbell and dumbbell exercises when possible, along with all bicepts and abdominal exercises.

If you do this while focusing on keeping the weight the same, you will shock your body to new levels of muscle confusion.

This article is absoloute garbage. Not only does it attempt to dispute scientifically proven exercises that are beneficial to not only muscle gain but also exercises that are beneficial to health! Next thing itl say 'don't do pull-ups because your shoulders aren't built for it'. All exercises are bad if you do them with bad form!

This is so full of bulls*it! One day you post an article promoting how these exercises are extra-ordinary, and then post this. It's not easy to rely on the website when articles vs others are so incoherent one another. Watch out for credibility. This is alot confusing..

I have been lifting weights for 26 years now w/ varying degrees of intensity. I have read numerous articles throughout those 26 years about muscle building do's and dont's and it get's to be very frustrating when most articles contradict each other, so I just stick w/ what has worked for me (injury free!!!) for all these years.

After a long time of eating lean, regularly going to the gym, and sleeping for over eight hours a day, I finally decided I needed a change. So, I took to online gaming, I'm having pre and post-dinner beers, and I'm carefully monitoring my vegetable intake, and I'll be honest, I've never felt better! I'm getting so round now, fattening up for summer! Look out ladies!

This was not the best day to visit this site for the first time. I was looking for a site to recommend to my clients via my recovery website and then realized this site is full of BS. I may have a hard time convincing myself you are now legitimate.